


A Gift for Two

by fencer_x



Category: Free!
Genre: Christmas Presents, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 15:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13437624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencer_x/pseuds/fencer_x
Summary: Haruka takes issue with Rin's gift and demands permission to respond in kind.





	A Gift for Two

Haruka frowned at the card in his hand, a flimsy piece of posterboard already fraying at the edges where Rin had obviously stuffed it into his already-bulging wallet shortly after procuring it. If he'd cared more about the present itself and less about the thought behind it, he might have been a big miffed that Rin hadn't taken more care with the symbol of the gift he'd apparently scraped and scrounged to obtain, but he didn't, so the point was moot. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the gift, nor was it that he didn't _want_ it—he wasn't a complicated person, and he didn't suspect Rin had gone through any great trouble to figure out what he wanted.

It was just...

"...Y-you...don't like it?" The hesitation in Rin's voice was almost welcome; for too long (all right, only a few months, but that was _too long_ ) Haruka had been treated to contempt, sneering, bitterness and derision all overlying frustration and irritation and _defeat_ , and those were not emotions he hoped to ever hear again in Rin's voice. Hesitation, though? Hesitation and all the things it brought with it—nerves and hope and anticipation of the _best_ variety—that, he could deal with, _welcomed_ even. So he swallowed thickly and shook his head slowly, relishing the soft chuckle of relief the gesture brought with it, and Rin shuffled closer on his hands and knees, slipping around the kotatsu to bump shoulders with Haruka and explain his gift in greater detail.

"Just—I mean, I can't sneak you into Samezuka's pool _every_ evening, and there's only so many joint practices we can invite you over for before it starts to look like Iwatobi's just one of our sister schools or something, but you won't last the winter without a dip and—"

Haruka flushed lightly in irritation. "I _could_ survive. Don't be ridiculous."

Rin ignored him with precision that said he'd rehearsed this. A lot. "—it's not a year-long thing—I couldn't afford that, sorry—but I figure a few months would at least last you til Spring hits, right?" He ducked his head to force Haruka's gaze to meet his own, when all Haruka really wanted to do was burn the words on the card into his eyes and memorize them, because he was never _ever_ going to get a better Christmas present than this.

ZERO SPORTS FITNESS SPA  
 **NAME:** Nanase Haruka  
 **EXPIRATION DATE:** APRIL 2014

Rin's brows drew together, his tone growing more frantic as he pressed his case. "I mean, Tottori's got way better facilities than any of the places around here, and you can swim pretty much whenever you want, any day of the week. Sure, there's the train ride, but it's short—not much longer than the time it takes you to get to Samezuka—and it's gotta be better than not swimming all winter, right?"

Haruka's lips pursed into a tight line, and he fought to keep himself from clutching the flimsy little card tight to his chest. "...You?"

"Huh?" Rin settled back onto his calves, brows flying up. "Me...what?"

Shoulders tense, Haruka glanced up. "...What about you?"

"...What _about_ me? I've got Samezuka—their natatorium's indoors, and they keep the pool a bearable temperature year-round. I don't need—" But he fell silent (wisely so) at the expression on Haruka's face. _Months_ now they'd been together, and while it'd been tentative and faltering at first, they'd learned to navigate each other's temperaments and flighty emotions with remarkable deftness. Which was to be expected; it had only been a matter of learning to be as _aware_ of one another out of the water as in it, and the hardest part hadn't been admitting that what they felt for one another was on a different level than the feelings they had for their mutual friends, but _realizing_ it in the first place. That out of the way, everything else had been a natural flow, like a river to the sea, and that was just _innate_.

So it irked, on several levels, when Rin played _dumb_ like this. Haruka assumed he was just feigning his ignorance, for there was no way he couldn't have misunderstood what Haruka was getting at. For good measure, though, he prompted, "...You can't honestly expect me to use this to swim alone." He could soak in his cramped little tub if he wanted to feel the water with no distractions; pools were by and large for enjoying the water—with others who enjoyed it _with him_.

Rin wrinkled his nose. "...Hey, I like Makoto and all, but this is kind of a special thing and I'm not footing the bill for him to—"

Haruka slapped the table—just hard enough to communicate that he wasn't in the mood for more of Rin's cocky banter—and pushed himself up onto legs numb from sitting in _seiza_ for too long before he hobbled over to his school bag, dropping to his knees again to fumble for his wallet. He had a monthly stipend for incidentals, but he hardly ever dipped into it save for the occasional splurge on a new suit or ten, maybe a pair of goggles when the band broke on his old pair. It might only be enough to last through February for now, but he could always scrimp to cover the final few months of Winter and early Spring, or drop hints to the others to chip in for a birthday present for Rin. As the saying went—if pushing didn't do any good, one had to resort to pulling.

He felt a presence at his back and hunched his shoulders, muttering under his breath as he leafed through the little bankbook. "...Oi, what the hell are you doing?"

"Checking my balance."

"What for?"

"To make sure I have enough to cover your membership too."

A rough, startled _Huh?_ was followed quickly by, "Wait— _my_ membership? The hell do I need a membership for? I told you, Samezuka's fine for—"

"And _I_ told _you_ —you can't honestly expect me to swim alone." He shot Rin a look out of the corner of his eye before bringing a thumb to his lips and gnawing nervously. He appreciated the thought—he _did_ , but there was...something not _right_ about using a gift like this, from a person like Rin, alone. He didn't mind swimming alone—preferred it a lot of the time—but every time he walked through those sliding doors and let his bag fall from his shoulder onto one of the benches in that pristine, well-kept locker room, he'd remember who put him there and undoubtedly _miss_ Rin. Not having Rin there would sour the experience now, which defeated the purpose of Haruka taking advantage of the gift in the first place. "It's fine; I'll just pay for your membership in place of my original gift."

Rin perked up here, the confusion and irritation washing from his features as he recalled what had brought him here in the first place. "Wait—my original gift?" Haruka ignored him, stuffing the bankbook back into his bag and making a mental note to call up the swim center to see what needed to be done to get Rin one of these cards to match his own. "What was it?"

Haruka pulled back when Rin leaned in close to place his face in his personal space, frowning and bracing his hand against Rin's forehead to shove him bodily away. "A gift."

"No _shit_ ," Rin groused, but there was a goofy smile on his face that wasn't going away. "I wanna know what it was. Not like it matters now."

He had a point, but Haruka wasn't about to let him know that and instead opted to give in as a means to keep Rin from bothering him further. "...I was going to cook something for you. Dinner, I suppose. Whatever you wanted."

A soft, sharp intake of air, and then: "...No mackerel?"

Haruka shrugged, shifting around back to the _kotatsu_ to begin clearing away the meal they'd just finished. "Not unless you wanted any." Rin wouldn't have wanted any; it was always _meat meat meat_ with him, but that was the point of a present, Haruka supposed: doing something for the person you cared for even if it wasn't what you'd _rather_ be doing.

Rin nearly tripped over his own legs to scramble back to the low table, leaning over it to place himself wholly in Haruka's field of vision. "Fuck the membership; I want _that_ instead!"

"You don't get to choose your gift. And I want to give you a membership—with me."

Slumping dramatically over the table, Rin injected a slight whine into his voice. "Come ooooon, I swim with you like five times a week as it is—"

"You're exaggerating."

"I'm _flattered_ you can't get enough of me—"

"Hardly."

"—but you _never_ cook me what I want when I'm over! A gift is supposed to be _special_ —and if you _not_ shoving mackerel down my throat isn't special, I dunno what is!" Haruka was clearly not being moved by Rin's fervent entreaties, though, so he changed tacks. "Fine, fine—just, think of the membership as a _personal_ present for yourself, then! Your present for me is dinner...and then the membership can be a present you give _yourself_."

Haruka raised a brow, hands stilling where he'd started to pile the empty plates atop one another. "...That makes no sense."

"It makes _total_ sense." And in Rin's head, it probably did, but Haruka was unconvinced.

"Then it isn't fair, at least."

"How do you figure that?"

"I receive two gifts—one from you, one from myself—whereas you only receive one from me."

Rin gave him a look that, if he read it correctly (and Haruka had had a bit of experience learning to read Rin these past few months; he wore his heart on his sleeve, without much attempt to disguise his emotions), meant he needed reminded why he put up with Haruka's antics in the first place. "Fine—then I'll just have to think of something else _I_ want...and we'll be even." Petty as it was, Haruka would not deny that he preferred there be balance in everything they did. One of them one-upping the other, whether by artifice or accident, always led to more and more competition, and while that could be _fun_ at times, kept their relationship on its toes, sometimes it was nice to just be...dead even.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "If you insist."

"I definitely insist..." Rin thrummed, leaning forward again and wrapping fingers delicately around Haruka's wrist, squeezing with suggestion. "Any way I can get my other gift _now_?"

Haruka's gaze flickered down to where they touched, then back up again—and then to the side as he tried to ignore the _look_ Rin had fixed on him, now that he'd gotten a _notion_ into his head. He could be vicious in going after what he wanted one he realized— _admitted_ —just what that was. It was that tenacity that had gotten them this far (and in more trouble and awkward situations than either wanted to remember). "If you'll recall, we agreed that we wouldn't use _sex_ as a gift." It was gauche, for one, and they already gave and took enough as it was; it was hardly special.

Rin's grip tightened, though. "No, we said we wouldn't give _each other_ sex as a gift; think of this as my present to myself—see? Besides, you cheated me out of getting to choose one of my gifts already. I'll _have_ my other one just as I like it."

Haruka felt his throat go dry and his heartbeat stutter—hardly the appropriate time or place for such a conversation, but Rin had never been one to pay much attention to those sorts of niceties. He just barreled in and dragged Haruka along with whatever he wanted, and given that, in the end, Haruka always enjoyed whatever Rin press-ganged him into doing, he didn't suppose he had much cause to complain. 

He huffed softly to himself and gently settled his chopsticks across the pile of dirty dishes on the table; he'd wanted to at least get them washed before they retired, but he could always just make Rin handle them in the morning while he soaked as recompense. Shifting up to his knees again and then to his feet as he unfolded himself, he brushed imaginary dust from his pants and reached a hand down to help Rin to his feet as well. "And how would that be?"

Rin reflexively took his hand, allowing himself to be pulled up as he gaped stupidly, patently not following. "...How would what be?"

He trusted Rin could find his way without being led; that went above and beyond a mere Christmas present. " _How you like it_." He was not ashamed of the secret little amused smile that wormed its way onto his lips following the strangled whimper Rin released in response.

He'd suffered through worse Christmases, most definitely.


End file.
